Tennis: Vesely enters Tata Open Maharashtra final after win against Berankis; Ramkumar-Raja lose

Czech Republic’s Jiri Vesely produced a brilliant performance to register a sensational come-from-behind 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (9-7) win against second-seed Ricardas Berankis and entered the singles final at the third edition of Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune.

The Indian pair of Ramanathan Ramkumar and Purav Raja were knocked out of the tournament after they were defeated in straight sets by third seed pair of Jonathan Earlich and Andrei Vasilevski in the doubles semi-final. Earlich and Vasilevski entered the final with a 7-6, 6-3 win over the Indian pair.

Andre Goransson and Christopher Rungkat have already made their way into the doubles summit clash with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) in the first semi-final on Friday.

In an intense fight between Vesely and Berankis in the last-four clash saw all three sets going into decider. While Berankis won the first set, Vesely bagged the second to keep his challenge alive during his third appearance at the Tata Open Maharashtra.

When Vesely and Berankis met last time in the round-of-128 during 2019 US Open, where the Lithuanian star clinched the marathon five-setter encounter. Six months later, both played with the same grit and hardly gave each other any chances to score. While Berankis entered the semi-final with 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 win over Japanese Yuichi Sugita, Vesely overcame Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (11-9).

The 26-year-old Vesely, who stunned the then NextGen star Alexander Zverev in the first round of Wimbledon last year, made World No 73 Berankis work hard in the last two sets in the 182-minute clash before clinching the thrilling encounter.

With a win over Berankis, Vesely made his way into his first final at the Tata Open Maharashtra. He will face the winner from the second semi-final between Italian Roberto Marcora and James Duckworth.